“I crawled out of hell,” Obito said, his voice a raw, scraping whisper.
He stared at his trembling hands.
“I am never going back.
This time, I will be the shield.
We are going to force this peace early.
Naruto is going to have a happy childhood.”
“Agreed,” Onoki grunted.
He crossed his arms over his chest.
“It is not my style to dump the sins of the present onto the shoulders of the next generation.
That boy burned his life to buy us this era.
If we fail to change the board, we spit on his grave.”
Killer B flashed a wide grin, tapping a rhythm against his thigh.
A showed his teeth in a fierce smile.
Minato and Dodai offered firm, silent nods.
Minato reached into his pouch and withdrew a three-pronged kunai.
He stepped forward and held the heavy steel out to A.
“Take this Flying Thunder God marker.
Obito and I will infiltrate Kumogakure in exactly four days.
We may need to coordinate our next move then.”
A snatched the kunai from Minato’s palm.
The future Raikage wasn’t stupid.
He knew Minato wasn’t asking for help; the Yellow Flash was offering him a lifeline.
If the Third Raikage branded his own son a traitor and threw him in the Blood Prison for attempting to halt the war, Minato could warp directly into his cell and extract him.
“Let me return you to your village, Tsuchikage-sama,” Minato said.
He placed a hand firmly on Onoki’s shoulder.
A flash of blinding yellow light illuminated the tent.
Minato and Onoki vanished.
A fraction of a second later, the air cracked, and Minato reappeared in the exact same spot.
He hauled Obito’s exhausted frame up by the shoulder, flared his chakra, and vanished again.
The command tent fell silent.
A turned to his advisors.
“Dodai, B.
You two hold the line here.
Maintain command over the vanguard.
I am returning to Kumogakure alone.”
Dodai frowned, deep lines cutting across his forehead.
“Are you certain, Lord A?
This is bordering on treason.
If the Third Raikage refuses to listen…”
“If the old man refuses to listen, we execute the Uchiha’s plan,” A rumbled, his voice devoid of hesitation.
” Marching in there with an entourage won’t change his mind.
Besides, I am the standing commander of this front.
I am absolutely not leaving B in charge of an entire army.”
A turned on his heel.
He ignored Killer B’s offended rap and threw open the tent flaps, bellowing for his squad captains to assemble.
Hundreds of miles away, Minato materialized inside Obito’s cramped apartment.
He deposited the gasping Uchiha onto his futon, instructed him to sleep off the catastrophic chakra drain, and vanished before the boy could argue.
The future Yellow Flash reappeared at the perimeter of the Third Training Ground.
He dropped from the treeline, his boots hitting the dirt without a sound.
A crowd had already gathered.
Dozens of shinobi murmured in low, tense voices.
The instant Minato’s boots touched the ground, the chatter died.
Every head snapped toward him.
Minato scanned the faces.
He recognized the hardened features of Konoha’s elite.
Hiashi Hyuga stood near the front.
Tsume Inuzuka crouched beside her ninken.
Shibi Aburame remained perfectly still, his insects buzzing in a low hum.
A young Might Guy and Kurenai Yuhi stood near the back.
In total, less than a hundred shinobi occupied the clearing.
Minato’s tactical mind crunched the numbers instantly.
Over a decade from now, the Allied Shinobi Forces would boast eighty thousand troops.
Averaging the deployment, Konoha’s military contribution to the Fourth War sat roughly around sixteen thousand personnel.
Factoring out the generation that hadn’t been born yet, there should have been thousands of reincarnated veterans standing in this village today.
The fact that less than a hundred stood before him painted a grim picture.
The rest of Konoha’s resurrected veterans were currently bleeding on the front lines of the Third Shinobi World War.
The village’s military strength was stretched to the absolute breaking point.
Rin shoved her way to the front of the crowd.
Her eyes darted frantically around the clearing.
“Minato-sensei!
Where is Obito?”
Minato offered a reassuring smile.
“He exhausted his chakra reserves.
I dropped him off at his apartment to rest.
Take Kakashi and go check on him, Rin.
If you want the truth about the future, ask him.
He will tell you himself.”
Rin nodded sharply.
She grabbed Kakashi by the wrist and dragged the silver-haired Jonin out of the training grounds, sprinting toward the Uchiha compound.
Minato shifted his focus.
He caught Shikaku Nara’s eye and gestured the man over.
Speaking in a low voice, Minato relayed the exact parameters of the memories possessed by A and Onoki.
Shikaku closed his eyes.
His mind processed the intel at terrifying speed.
“The rank-and-file survivors remember the victory,” Shikaku muttered, piecing the puzzle together.
“But the Kage…
their memories terminate shortly after they pass the hat to their successors.
The jutsu’s chronological cutoff is tied directly to their respective eras of leadership.”
Minato nodded.
It gave him the exact boundary of what he needed to disclose.
Naruto likely hadn’t known the precise mechanical limitations of the forbidden jutsu when he cast it; the boy had simply thrown his entire soul into the jutsu and hoped for the best.
Minato stepped onto a raised stump in the center of the grounds.
He projected his voice, commanding absolute silence.
“I know you are all drowning in questions,” Minato declared.
“Listen closely.
I will give you the tactical summary of what we face.”
He outlined the future.
He corroborated the memories they already possessed, but he expanded the scope.
He detailed the era of peace following the Fourth War.
He spoke of Thunder Rail bridging the nations, the skyscrapers towering over Konoha, and the unprecedented alliances.
Then, he described the Otsutsuki.
He laid out the absolute devastation Kaguya’s kin had wrought upon their home.
“Our objective is clear,” Minato finished, his voice echoing across the silent field.
“We must consolidate our military strength immediately.
If you encounter other resurrected personnel, brief them on this intel.
Do not let Naruto’s sacrifice mean nothing.
We will not let our families burn in a doomed timeline.
We will break our enemies here, in this era.”
The silence held for a single, heavy second.
Then, the chakra in the clearing spiked.
Determination hardened the faces of the veterans.
They had survived one apocalypse; they would not let a second one claim their home.
Minato fielded three rapid-fire logistical questions from the clan heads, then dismissed the assembly.
The shinobi scattered, moving with terrifying, renewed purpose.
Minato stepped down from the stump.
Shikaku fell into step beside him as they turned their path toward the Hokage Tower.
“How do you want to handle the Third?” Minato asked quietly.
They both knew Hiruzen Sarutobi utilized the Telescope Technique.
A crystal ball sat on his desk, allowing him to monitor the village’s chakra signatures.
A spontaneous, massive gathering of clan heads and elite Jonin at the Third Training Ground would have instantly triggered his surveillance.
Shikaku cleared his throat, actively suppressing a few highly effective, highly treasonous tactical scenarios that immediately sprang to mind.
“He knows something monumental just shifted,” Shikaku said.
“He’s likely watching us right now.
But we do not have the time or the manpower for a civil war.
We have to halt the border conflicts before we do anything else.
Otherwise, none of this matters.” Shikaku looked up at the towering red edifice of the Hokage building.
“We just have to hope Lord Third listens to reason.”